Last year, in late February, I had a short weekend trip to beautiful Oslo. It stole my heart. I wished I could move there (I still do every now and then). I also wrote about the trip’s culinary side here. One of the Norwegian delicacies I tasted was “Suksesskake” aka “Success cake” in English. This almond based cake with a silky yellow cream on top was a bit sweeter than I expected but very delicious nonetheless (as everything else I tasted there). So I put it in my list to bake by myself, and after trying several different recipes online, I made the perfect one, which tasted like that one we ate in the Oslo cafe.

 

 

The cake, the cream and assembly are all pretty easy to make. The only thing that you should pay attention is the time, it might take quite some time. The reason for this is that both cake base and cream should cool down to room temperature before assembly. If you put the cream on top before either one is cool enough, then most probably the cream will be partially absorbed by cake base, which is not something you want happening.

 

 

 

To decorate the cake, you can use almonds, this is the most general decoration. In my version I also put a little chocolate. So, if you want to keep it VERY traditional, then just use almonds, otherwise, your imagination is your limit. This recipe is an adaptation of the one in Arctic Grub website, with a little twist of addition of walnuts, inspired from a Youtube recipe named “Grandmas Norwegian Success Cake”.

 

 

You can also bake 2 of the cake base in the recipe below, doubling the cream as well, and make a sandwich cake like the one I ate in Oslo (check the picture in the related article). What goes well with the cake? Tea, of course! (or coffee, if you must!)

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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty: ★★☆ (Medium)
(baked in 24 cm springform pan)
(in this recipe, 1 cup = 2.4 dl)

 

Printable PDF version (no photos)

 

For cake base (sorry, the photo of cake’s ingredients somehow vanished!)
5 egg whites
1 cup / 2 dl + 2 tbsp + 2 tsp powdered sugar
1 cup / 2 dl + 2 tbsp + 2 tsp ground almond
1/4 cup / 4 tbsp coarsely ground walnuts
2 tsp white wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder

 

For yellow cream:
6 ego yolks
2/3 cup / 1 dl + 4 tbsp granulated white sugar
2/3 cup / 1 dl + 4 tbsp heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla sugar
155 gr. butter, softened in room temperature

 

For decoration:
Sliced and/or coarsely chopped almonds, coarsely chopped or shaved chocolate

 

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1. First, bake the cake. For this, preheat the oven to 180C. Put some baking sheet on the base of a springform pan and grease the pan.

 

2. In a mixing bowl, put egg whites and start beating in medium speed until soft peaks form.

 

 

 

3. Once you see the soft peaks, add powdered sugar gradually, 1 tbsp at a time. Continue beating until sugar dissolves and you get slightly stiff peaks.

 

 

 

4. In another bowl, put ground almonds, ground/chopped walnuts, flour and baking powder and mix just a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Add beaten egg whites and fold well until all ingredients are incorporated.

 

 

 

6. Put the batter in cake pan, smooth the surface as much as possible and bake in the middle rack of the oven for about 30 minutes.

 

 

 

7. Let the cake cool down to room temperature. Then transfer the cake to a service plate. While the cake is cooling, prepare the cream.

 

 

8. In a small pan, put egg yolks, granulated white sugar, cream and vanilla and whisk a little. Put the pan on medium heat, and while constantly stirring (or whisking) bring the mixture to almost to a boil (when you see one little “blob”, it’s done).

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Take the pan away from heat and let it cool to room temperature.

 

 

10. Add butter, little by little, mixing it with well and evenly with the rest of the cream each time. Once you’ve added all the butter and the mixture is smooth, leave it to cool a little more, about 10-15 minutes.

 

 

 

11. When you have both cake base and cream cool, spread cream on top of the cake. Garnish with almond slices, chocolate etc. Yumm!!